Gator, possibly weighing 500 pounds, attacks boy in Lake Toho

THE RAIN IS GOING TO BE ON YOUR SATURDAY AND YOUR SUNDAY, A LITTLE BIT LATER. THE HUNT CONTINUES IN THIS OSCEOLA COUNTY LAKE TODAY FOR A NINE-FOOT ALLIGATOR THAT ATTACKED A 9-YEAR-OLD BOY. TRAPPERS SAY THEY HAVE STILL NOT FOUND IT BUT THE BOY WHO SURVIVED IT ALL IS NOW TELLING HIS STORY. HE WAS ATTACKED WHILE SWIMMING IN EAST LAKE TOHO IN ST. CLOUD YESTERDAY AFTERNOON. LOCAL 6'S ERIC SANDOVAL IS LIVE FROM ARNOLD PALMER HOSPITAL WHERE HE SPOKE WITH THE BOY THIS AFTERNOON. THIS IS ONE BRAVE LITTLE BOY. YEAH, YOU KNOW, HE IS AN AMAZING BOY. HIS NAME IS JAMES BARNEY. HE'S STILL AT ARNOLD PALMER HOSPITAL. HE'S 9 YEARS OLD. HE SAID IT WAS HOT YESTERDAY, JUST LIKE IT IS TODAY. AND HE RODE HIS BIKE DOWN TO LAKE TOHO IN OSCEOLA COUNTY TO COOL OFF. LITTLE DID HE KNOW HE'D BE FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE. I FELT ITS JAW, I FELT ITS TEETH. I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO. THIS IS 9-YEAR-OLD JAMES BARNEY, BEING ROLLED IN TO MEET US AT ARNOLD PALMER MEDICAL CENTER WHERE HE WAS TAKEN AFTER HE WAS ATTACKED YESTERDAY. HE SAYS HE WENT FOR A SWIM IN LAKE TOHO AND THOUGHT SOMEONE WAS PLAYING WITH HIM UNDER WATER. TURNS OUT, IT WAS AN ALLIGATOR THAT CLAMPED DOWN ON HIM. I HIT HIM A COUPLE OF TIMES AND THEN IT WAS LETTING GO A LITTLE AND THEN FINALLY I HAD ENOUGH STRENGTH LEFT TO PRY ITS JAW OPEN A LITTLE. BARNEY SAYS HE SWAM TO SHORE AND CALLED FOR HELP AND THAT'S WHEN AN AMBULANCE BROUGHT HIM TO THE HOSPITAL. HE'D BEEN BITTEN SEVERAL TIMES. DOCTORS EVEN HAD TO PULL ONE OF THE TEETH OUT OF HIM. THE TOOTH WAS PRETTY BIG. I WANTED TO KEEP IT, BUT ANIMAL CONTROL CAME IN AND TOOK IT. THEY WANTED TO USE IT AS A MATCH AGAINST ANY ALLIGATOR THEY MAY CATCH BACK AT THE LAKE. WHAT DID HE LEARN FROM ALL THIS? DON'T GO SWIMMING IN THAT LAKE. JAMES ACTUALLY WENT IN FOR SURGERY THIS MORNING. DOCTORS WANTED TO CLEAN HIS WOUNDS TO MAKE SURE NO INFECTION SETS IN. HE HAS MORE THAN 30 TEETH MARKS ALL OVER HIS BODY AND CHEST. BUT, YOU KNOW, DESPITE ALL THIS, DOCTORS SAY HE'S ONE OF THE BRAVEST PATIENTS THEY'VE EVER HAD AT ARNOLD PALMER HOSPITAL. DO WE KNOW WHEN JAMES IS GOING TO GET OUT OF THE HOSPITAL? THE DOCTORS WANT TO SWITCH HIM TO ORAL ANTIBIOTICS INSTEAD OF THE I.V. HE HAS IN HIM RIGHT NOW. IT SHOULD HAPPEN SOMETIME SUNDAY. SO HE SHOULD BE ABLE TO GO HOME BACK THEN. HIS DAD WENT THROUGH AN AWFUL

ST. CLOUD, Fla. -

A 9-year-old boy was able to fight off a large alligator Thursday afternoon in an Osceola County lake, wildlife officials said.

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Wildlife officials said the boy was riding his bicycle when he decided to swim in a non-swimming area of the lake.

With bite marks on his leg and pain in his body, James Barrny is a lot better off than what you'd expect after fighting off a 9-foot gator.

"He was just at the lakefront playing, and him and a couple of his friends -- and they got in the water -- they were swimming around, an alligator came up and just snatched him," said James' grandfather, John Hayes.

"He heard him screaming and then we didn't know what happened ... he was crawling up the shore, screaming and crying with gator bites all over his back and scratches," said the boy's friend, who called 911.

Hayes said his grandson thought it was his friends playing with him.

"He was scared to death. He thought one of his friends was poking him and then all of a sudden it just grabbed him," said Hayes.

The next seconds would be crucial to surviving.

"Then he was fighting with it, hitting it in the face and it finally opened its mouth a little bit, and he hit it again in the eye and he got away from it," Hayes recalled to Local 6.

"If he really got a hold of him in the water, I don't know how he got out. Let's put it that way," said Joe Elsebough, with Snapper Trapperz.

Elsebough calls James a tough boy, and he'd know. For hours into the night, Joe tried to catch the 500-pound gator, but it was so powerful it snapped the line.

"It's amazing. I can't believe he did that, but it was really cool he did. He's going to be OK," said Hayes.

James managed to escape with non-life-threatening injuries. He underwent surgery to clean his wounds on Friday.

James also ended up with one of the gator's teeth.

The city of St. Cloud closed nearby swimming areas of the lake until further notice.

The trapper returned Friday morning to try to catch the gator.

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